Langley Looking Back: Second World War assets purchased here

• Work on a slip for a Fraser River ferry was nearly completed, nd the Fort Langley Community Association was planning a celebratory dance.

A special committee planned to broadcast the King’s coronation speech.

Seventy Years Ago

April 24, 1947

• Langley Memorial Hospital Society got a 67-bed hospital from the War Assets Disposal Corp. for $9,500. The hospital had to be moved to Langley from Boundary Bay, and originally cost $90,000.

• Langley Legion Br. #21 was selling $50 shares to raise funds for a new hall. Work on the $50,000 building was expected to start in the summer.

The Royal Bank of Canada planned to move a New Westminster building to a recently purchased site in Aldergrove.

Sixty Years Ago

April 18, 1957

• Langley City Hall was officially opened by Municipal Affairs Minister W.D. Black.

R.A. Payne was to be made a freeman of Langley City upon his retirement. He had served Langley since 1907, as tax collector, municipal clerk, and magistrate.

Fifty Years Ago

April 20, 1967

• A frustrated South Langley Ratepayers Association, unable to halt the opening of a new gravel pit or to secure a piped water supply, appealed to Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Campbell to step in a force the amalgamation of Langley City and Township. In the letter, the ratepayers group complained, “We are being immolated on the alter of the foolish pride of these incompetents who are, we feel, acting in violation of the oath of office.”

• Provincial health and welfare minister Wesley Black approved a call for tenders to renovate the former Langley Memorial Hospital as an extended care unit.

Forty Years Ago

April 21, 1977

Langley City okayed a $300,000 expansion to the curling facility at Civic Centre (now George Preston Recreation Centre), despite protests from Alderman Aubrey Searle who felt such major projects should wait until “strained relations” between the City and Township abated.

B.C. Hydro searched Langley and the Fraser Valley for a big hole in which to store natural gas reserves.

• A 30-month contract between Langley School District and two of its employees’ unions was approved by Compensation Stabilization Commissioner Ed Peck.

Langley teachers prepared to take part in a B.C.-wide one-day walk-ou to protest the province’s new education legislation.

Twent Years Ago

April 22, 1997

• The “paperbag rapist” again failed to obtain his release from jail after gaining “no sympathy whatsoever” from the parole board. One of his Langley victims was angry and frustrated, however, that he could apply again every two years.

• Langley Liberal MLA Lynn Stephens charged that under-funding of school districts like Langley by the provincial NDP government could lead to the creation of a two-tiered education system, with richer districts paying their own way and poorer ones falling behind.

• Langley Hospice Society drew up a proposal for Township council, to turn a 100-year-old heritage building, the former Traveller’s Hotel in Murrayville, into a compassionate care home for the terminally ill.